A preliminary hearing was scheduled for April 7 for a Centuria man charged with lighting a Walmart employee’s car on fire after the employee caught him stealing from Walmart in Lake Geneva.
Jeremy A. Saavedra, 32, was charged March 31 in Walworth County Circuit court with misdemeanor retail theft, two counts of misdemeanor bail jumping, felony intimidation of a witness, arson of property other than a building, damage or threat to the property of a witness and disorderly conduct, all as a repeater.
According to the criminal complaint, Saavedra is suspected of stealing a cart full of items from Walmart in Lake Geneva on March 21. On March 23, the car of the Walmart employee who called police to report the theft was on fire in the parking lot of the store, according to the complaint.
The employee said he had apprehended Saavedra stealing from the store the week before, and Saavedra was suspected of stealing again prior to the arson, according to the complaint. Walmart surveillance video shows Saavedra walk from a marshy area behind Walmart directly to the employee’s car carrying a red gas can, the complaint states. The back window was broken out of the car, and a rock and a gas can were in the back seat, according to the complaint.
Saavedra was under bond conditions at the time on a Polk County charge of retail theft and was convicted in Walworth County of resisting or obstructing an officer and bail jumping, according to the complaint.
